Fresh Eyes
Andrew Apostolou of Apostablog has been doing a regular gig at Michael J. Totten's place while Michael is out digging up timely human interest stories in the Middle East. Andrew is a supple writer and I get a great grin out of him. Your experience of that may diminish in proportion to how much your world-view dissents from his, and mine. Sample:
[UPDATE: See attribution correction in comments thread.]
But the eye-opener on the site is at the top: the reports from the London “March For Free Expression,” in which every jot and tittle of British law was invoked to keep the free expression part of the event to a minimum:
Yes, the same London police who allowed the anti-cartoon protests of a few months ago, with signs like "Behead those who insult Islam" and chants to nuke America. Oh, and Andrew's got plenty of pictures of London rallies which were allowed to display foreign flags (no prize for guessing which black, red, white, and green one figures prominently among them).
I find it a little hard to believe Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's "The Israel Lobby" was written while sober. In their first sentence, the authors assert that, "For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel."
Pretty much any American who has ever been in a motorized vehicle knows that the centerpiece of US Middle Eastern policy is Washington's relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and has been so since the mid-30s. It is a vital national interest -- not just because cheap fuel permits Americans to drive SUVs, but because protecting the largest known oil-reserves in the world ensures a stable world economy. Moreover, the US military counts on access to that oil in the event it has to wage war -- an activity that demands a lot of oil.
... So, how much credit should these guys get for staking out a "realist" position on US Middle Eastern policy that does not account for the existence of cars, or something even bigger than a Hummer -- the Arabian Peninsula? Unless they were drunk, they shouldn't get any at all. If they were drunk, kudos to them for no spelling mistakes! -- none that I could find anyway.
[UPDATE: See attribution correction in comments thread.]
But the eye-opener on the site is at the top: the reports from the London “March For Free Expression,” in which every jot and tittle of British law was invoked to keep the free expression part of the event to a minimum:
The stewards were advised that a bylaw prohibits the display in Trafalgar Square of any foreign flags, so they had to cooperate with the wardens and the police in asking people to lower Danish and American flags. That's a shame, but thank you to the people concerned for complying with good grace (and sometimes managing to "wear" the flags in a way that was allowed to pass).
Yes, the same London police who allowed the anti-cartoon protests of a few months ago, with signs like "Behead those who insult Islam" and chants to nuke America. Oh, and Andrew's got plenty of pictures of London rallies which were allowed to display foreign flags (no prize for guessing which black, red, white, and green one figures prominently among them).
